After starting strong, Marlins fall flat against Dodgers. Takeaways from the series
The Miami Marlins opened their three-game road series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a bang but ended with a fizzle.
After dominating in an 11-3 win on Friday, the Marlins dropped both games of a Saturday doubleheader by identical 3-1 scores to drop the series. Miami is now 64-61 on the season and with 37 games left in the regular season is tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks and a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds for the National final wild card spot in what is a six-team race (seven if counting the further back but not yet out of it San Diego Padres) for three wild card spots.
Here are three takeaways from the series.
Starting pitching showed up
Miami’s three starting pitchers in the Dodgers series — Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez and Braxton Garrett — combined to hold the Dodgers to six runs over 18 innings of work. Five of those six runs were solo home runs, three against Alcantara and two against Garrett. Three of those home runs, it should be noted, came from Mookie Betts, the Dodgers’ star leadoff hitter who is fourth in MLB with 34 home runs this season.
The star of the group this weekend was Perez. The Marlins’ 20-year-old rookie right-handed looked like the up-and-coming ace that he was in the first in the first half of the season before being sent to the minor leagues for a month to monitor his innings.
His final line on Saturday: Six shutout innings, two hits allowed, no walks and a career-high 10 strikeouts on 90 pitches (60 strikes).
And that was against an offense that is third in MLB in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.791) and has hit the second-most home runs (194) this season.
“Ten strikeouts, not too much hard contact, controlled the running game when there were guys on. He was excellent,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker told reporters in Los Angeles after the game. “He does that, we’re in a good spot.”
But Perez’s performance was overshadowed in the final score after reliever David Robertson gave up three runs in the eighth inning to give the Dodgers the lead for good.
And his performance shouldn’t overshadow what Miami’s other two starting pitchers did at Dodger Stadium. Alcantara held the Dodgers to just three solo home runs on Friday in the lone win of the series and Garrett held Los Angeles to just three runs as well in the nightcap Saturday.
The offense showed up ... for one game
Miami’s offense slugged a season-high five home runs — one shy of the franchise record for a single game — in the series opener to make a statement against the Dodgers.
Jorge Soler hit two solo shots out of the leadoff spot, Jake Burger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. each hit a three-run home run, and Jacob Stallings added a two-run homer for good measure as well. All of this came in the first four innings on Friday against Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin, who went on the injured list Saturday.
After that? The Marlins’ offense went stagnant.
Miami scored just three runs the rest of the series — a Joey Wendle RBI triple in the fifth inning Friday for the Marlins’ 11th and final run of the game, a Bryan De La Cruz RBI double in the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, and a Josh Bell solo home run in the first inning of the doubleheader nightcap.
Bell, Burger proving their worth
While the Marlins’ focus is on the collective effort and racking up team wins, it’s hard to ignore the value that Bell and Burger have provided to the Marlins’ lineup since being acquired at the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 1. The two have provided length and needed thump to the lineup.
In 17 games, Bell is hitting .288 with a .606 slugging mark and .962 OPS. He has six home runs (tied for the fifth-most in MLB since playing his first Marlins game on Aug. 2), 11 RBI and 13 runs scored and has safely reached base in all but one game.
As for Burger, he’s hitting .359 (the 12th-best average in MLB since Aug. 2) with five doubles, two home runs, 11 RBI and eight runs scored in his first 17 games with the Marlins. Like Bell, he has safely reached base in all but one of his games.
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